2008 BMW 135i: Fast Times... and Run-Flat Tires

Holy cats, does the 135i show you a good time. It added some real spice to a vanilla weekend spent running vanilla errands and driving to vanilla places like Burbank to connect with friends.

Thanks to our compact Bimmer, that drive to Burbank was actually one of the high points of my weekend. Said drive was some 21.39 miles. Most of the journey was comprised of freeway travel, and since I left home early Saturday morning, the city's arteries were uncharacteristically unclogged. That, of course, meant that I got to really enjoy the 135i's 300-horsepower twin turbo. The little car soared like an uncaged bird, and I was happy to be along for the ride.

But the rough roads in my 'hood brought the 135i back to earth. Its run-flat tires absorbed minor surface irregularities, but deeper pavement pockmarks were received in a significantly less favorable light. There's one jumbo pothole in particular -- more like a lake bed, really -- that's impossible to avoid, since it's on the street that leads to my apartment building. It's bearable in cars with regular tires, but in the 135i... ouch. Every time I traveled over it, I got a jolt that surely shifted the location of an internal organ or two.